More than 100 people shouted it again and again — loud enough for cars stopped at red lights to hear, loud enough to stir people from their homes, loud enough to entice a few others to join the 2 Miles 2 Stop Gang Violence march along North Detroit Avenue — starting at Central Avenue and ending just beyond Dorr Street, passing through numerous gang territories on Sunday.

“The time for action is now,” said Ray Wood, president of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the pre-march rally. “It's not about saying, it's about doing. And look at all of these beautiful minds out here. There's a whole lot of beautiful minds being lost, being shot and killed … [people who] don't make it to their 20th birthdays because of gang violence.”

Willie Knighten, a former gang member whose life sentence for murder was commuted in 2009, told the crowd that, coming up, he was told two things happen to gang members: you go to prison or you end up dead.

Now he knows there's a third choice: Change.

Paul Parker, 28, who had the idea for the march and rally — which is in its third year — knows that too.

Parker spent years representing X Blocc, a Crips gang, until he was sent to prison on a drug charge. Now he and the friends he came through the gang with — like the Rev. Chris McBrayer, 26, and Justin Coffey, 28 — are pushing back against the very things they stood for.

Paul Parker, a former member of X Blocc, a Crips affiliated gang, holds his twins Payyon, left, and Paylin as he marches. Parker changed his life after going to prison on a drug charge.

Others like Coffey, Parker, and Mr. McBrayer joined the ranks of the march — like their friend and former 12-year member of X Blocc Richard Perry, 31.

“I'm tired of all the killings and random shootings,” he said during the march. “You can't go out and have a good time without worrying about gang violence.”

Being there was personal for LaSonya Holman.

Her 19-year-old niece, Summer Ware, was shot six times Thursday in the 2800 block of Nebraska Avenue.

“Shot six times — that's a miracle child,” Mrs. Holman said about her niece surviving the attack.

Whether he meant it when he said it, a member of the Lawrence Blood Villains, LBV, joined the march at Delaware Avenue.

“Gotta walk to end gang violence,” the 20-year-old, who would only identify himself as “Rob da god,” told a friend on the phone.

Later he said, “This ain't gonna stop nothing. I like this though.”

Parker, during an interview Friday, said the impact of the march might not be felt for 5 or 10 years — not until the children of gang members grow up and have to decide whether they'll follow in their parents' footsteps.

“I personally think it's going to get worse,” Parker said about gang violence in Toledo. “I think it's going to get better, but it's going to get worse before it gets better.”